Patna,(BiharTimes): Dispelling the general fear Bihar planning and development minister Narendra Narayan Yadav saidon Friday that the fall in value of rupee would not affect the 14 per cent growth rate of the state.
Talking to the media the minister said while the fall may impact the Centre and cause price hike, the state government will be able to maintain growth rate by rescheduling costs.
He assured that developmental activities in the state would pick up after October and the annual plan outlay of Rs 34,000 crore would be fully spent. Till August 23, that is almost the first five months of the current financial year, the state government had sanctioned Rs 37,090.37 crore on different schemes. So far, Rs 7,554.43 crore, which is 22.22 per cent of the plan outlay, has been spent. 
Yadav said the state has prepared a five-year plan of Rs 2.28 lakh crore, which would be more than the combined annual plans for the last 50 years.
According to the minister teachers and government employees have now been exempted from economic and census survey work, as the state has prepared a separate cadre of 72,500 Accreditated Statistical Volunteers (ASVs). They would be collecting data related to rainfall, crops coverage and harvests as well.
Yadav said the Union government had asked other states to follow this practice of Bihar and free teachers from non-academic works.
The minister said the state had entered into an agreement with the World Bank in January 2011 for a $259 million loan to undertake reconstruction of infrastructure in the first phase in Kosi belt devastated by August 2008 deluge. 
To execute the project, the state government has constituted Bihar Disaster Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Society. 
The minister, who hails from the Kosi belt, further added that a sum of $375 million each would be required for the second and third phases. 
While the first phase is on the second phase is scheduled to start from December this year.
The minister explained that under the project, so far, 10,779 houses have been constructed. It is proposed to provide houses to one lakh affected people. It is also proposed to construct 70 bridges in Supaul, Madhepura and Saharsa districts.
Countering the Darbhanga MP Kirti Azad’s allegation that no development work has been taken under the MPLAD fund the minister said in the current financial year, Rs 292 crore has been spent on 4,285 schemes recommended by the members of Parliament in Bihar. The state has already released the first instalment for 14 schemes recommended by six MPs in the current financial year.
Notwithstanding the minister’s claim on Kosi reconstruction work, Mahindra Yadav, social activist associated with Kosi Navnirman Manch said that if the rate of construction would go in this way it would take 50 years for all the houses to be built. He said the work for the first phase should have been completed within six months by Dec 31, 2011 itself.